Ethereum Foundation to Cut 2026 Budget by About 40%, Restructure Operations

Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) said the Ethereum Foundation (EF) will reduce its 2026 budget by roughly 40% and shift toward a long-term endowment model. EF plans to bring its annual spending rate down from about 15% to around 5% after 2030. The plan includes several structural changes. EF will formally wind down the Privacy and Scaling Explorations (PSE) group, redirecting efforts toward a smaller set of mission-critical technologies. The foundation's multiclient strategy will move away from redundancy-focused security toward a more specialized division of labor, including AI-assisted formal verification. Devcon will be scaled back over time. EF also intends to step away from large external initiatives not directly tied to Ethereum. Buterin said he will personally fund related work going forward. After the Ethereum Strawmap is completed, Buterin said the focus will shift to security fixes and small, high-value upgrades, with a higher bar for adding new features, moving toward a leaner model more reminiscent of Bitcoin.